On April 25, 1995, Reinhold Elstner, a 75 year-old veteran of the Second World War, walked to the steps of Munich's historical Feldherrnhalle, doused himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire. Elstner committed suicide to protest against what he called "the ongoing official slander and demonization of the German People and German soldiers 50 years after the end of World War II". Unfortunately, the act received little attention from the German press - the organ principally responsible for the German guilt parade, generation after generation.
Elstner, a doctor of Chemistry, was born in a German cultural region called the Sudetenland. The Sudetenland became a part of Germany in 1938, after the Munich Conference, and is today a part of the Czech Republic.
In his farewell letter, Elstner wrote:
"With my 75 years of age, all I can do is to set a final sign of contemplation with my death in flames. And if only one German comes to consciousness and finds his way to the truth, then my sacrifice will not have been in vain."Rest in peace. Fifteen years later, we remember you.
